Guest Post: Why we changed the name of our startup company

Adam Schoenfeld: This is the kind of call we've had from accounting departments at a few large customers recently:

Me: "Hello. This is Adam."

Caller: " Hi. [Awkward Pause] I have a $500 charge on my credit card from "Untitled." This number was listed. What the hell is going on here?"

Me: "Let me explain..."

When we set out on this startup journey, we took the name Untitled Startup Inc. It was really the perfect fit given our completely undefined vision about the business and product we wanted to build.

The company was founded with a vision for process, not product or market. We knew that we loved creating simple useful stuff that solved big customer problems and generally we liked the social media/PR space.

Beyond that vague, high level idea, there was no vision about what we wanted to be when we grew up. With that, there was always a question about when we would take a title. When would we have a sufficiently clear focus that Untitled Startup was no longer appropriate?

We didn't have a great answer, but figured that it would be obvious when the time was right. Well, it's obvious now.

This didn't happen in one moment, but evolved over the last several months.

One major sign of course, is a shift from creating content and being obsessed with the "startup lifestyle", to buckling down and building a business. As we push out our new branding this week, I thought about the recent developments that dictated this decision.

These highlights stood out when deciding to take a title and commit to our vision:

1. We've zoomed in on a product/market focus. This happened as a result of our "Untitled" process, finding problems quickly, putting out solutions quicker, and charging on day one. We've now locked in on a core mission; helping marketers become data rockstars with shockingly easy to use measurement and reporting tools. We got here by following our open title-less process, but now that we're here, it's created a feeling that we're ready for that title. It didn't go exactly as we thought, but but we got here anyway.

2. Perhaps the most important data is our customer validation. We now have two products around our mission that customers are paying for. We're getting constant feedback that has helped guide our direction. We're now expanding on what we've done with RowFeeder and Exportly, and wrapping the customer value proposition into the Simply Measured name and product.

3. We reached break-even on our core team and expenses in January. This was a major goal for us at the outset. We didn't know what our business would be, but we knew focusing on revenue early and controlling our destiny would be a core value. We're now increasing headcount, growing more aggressively, and setting new, more ambitious revenue goals. These all felt like things that a titled company would do.

4. We went through our first acquisition talks and decided to stay the course building our business (more on this in a later post). We learned a ton through this and it was a big part of the growing up process.

5. Doing business with big companies, "Untitled Startup" on the contracts and credit card receipts just wasn't always going to fly :) When the SVP at a big brand or agency is signing off on our contract and they see "Untitled Startup, Inc" or the same on a credit card statement, it can certainly throw up a few awkward questions. As we're addressing this market, we need a name that doesn't through up red flags with our buyers.

Startups are often pivoting or changing focus. The data you use to decide on a change, narrowing, or shift in direction can vary.

In our case, these were the things that made us realize it was time to take that next step. I suspect a lot of companies start out with a broad, undefined vision and later narrow their mission.

In our case, it just happened to align perfectly with our name, so finding our focus also means getting a title. This week you can say goodbye to Untitled Startup and hello to Simply Measured.

Editor's Note: Startup Confidential is written by Aviel Ginzburg, Damon Cortesi and Adam Schoenfeld. The series follows the ups and downs of the Seattle technology entrepreneurs as they try to get their new business off the ground. Adam Schoenfeld is a co-founder of Simply Measured.